


Guns Hidden Under Our Petticoats

by Anonymous



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, China Is Kind Of An Asshole (Hetalia), Countries Using Human Names, Dad England (Hetalia), Dad Spain (Hetalia), Historical Inaccuracy, Kidnapping, Multi, Romano Has A Potty Mouth (Hetalia), Russia Being Russia (Hetalia), steamtalia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-22 22:32:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8303636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: When Feliciano is kidnapped by a crew of pirates down on their luck, he tries to make the best of the situation.Lovino is about to raise hell just to get his brother back.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi this is my SUPER SECRET WRITING PROJECT because I know if any of my friends knew that I was writing hetalia fanfiction in the year of 2016 I would never hear the end of it (altho if any of them saw the pairings in this fic they would probably know its me right away HAHAHAH)  
> this is not beta read at all so im in the market for a beta :^) if you’ve beta read for other people’s writing before hit me up pls  
> This is mildly historical but im taking artistic liberties in various places bc this is steampunk and that’s allowed here  
> Since this fic has a lot of characters that don’t have canon human names and goes by a very different age standard than most fics here’s a doc for reference on everyone’s name and age. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IOSeav_ZxLF4Yg-JWNEbXHRsq06KGF59PisYi7w4WLI/edit?usp=sharing For any character without a canon human name I went by what Himaruya said he liked or what is a popular name in that country according to google. If any names are problematic in any way (same name as an awful famous person, name doesn’t actually come from that country/isn't that common, etc) let me know and I can go back and change all of this HAHA  
> title comes from chocolate by the 1975 because it was stuck in my head while i was writing this  
> also that list of characters/pairings might get? expanded on? theres a few more i want but im not 100% sure how to write them into the story yet so tHERE WE GO LETS DO THIS

“Feli!" Antonio called from the kitchen, "I need you to do the food shopping today!"  
“Aw but Toni, I wanted to rest today! It’s not fair to make the birthday boy work!” Feliciano sat up from his laying down position on the sofa with a whine.  
Antonio chuckledas he walked over to where Feliciano was resting. He tossed some money in a pouch at the sofa. “It’s only a little trip. This way, you can get exactly what you need for your dinner tonight. Both Emma and I promise that you can get whatever you want and we will make it for you.”  
“What if I buy 50 kilos worth of pasta? Would you really cook all of it?” Feliciano looked at Antonio with eyes wide and full of wonder, as if he could barely even imagine what that much pasta looked like.  
Antonio laughed outright at his question. “If you could really find that much pasta with the money I gave you, sure. Make sure to save some money for sauce ingredients too. Now go on, you want to leave us with enough time to cook all that food right?”  
Feliciano zipped out the front door, not even checking how much money Antonio gave him.  
"Feli, you forgot to put on shoes!" -  
“Elise, how many potatoes do we need again?” Elizaveta called from two stalls over. Elise snuck through the crowd to see exactly what the other woman was looking at.  
“I believe Gilbert said,” Elise cleared her throat and continued in a deeper, rough voice to mimic Gilbert’s own, “As many as you can fucking carry, ladies.”  
Elizaveta tossed her head back with a loud laugh. “ _Please_ , show that impression to everyone else. That was so perfect.” Elise did a small curtsy. While she did so, however, something shiny and green caught Elizaveta’s eye. Elise noticed the other’s distracted look and tried to subtly glance behind her. They both saw it now, a gold necklace with a green stone. It had an intricate wave design carved into it. They looked back at each other and nodded.  
Elizaveta leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Lure him into the alley on upper market street, the one next to The Drunken Pig. I’m going to run and get Ludwig, so give me a few minutes. If the usual routine doesn’t work, run over to the alley and we’ll go to plan B. No matter what, we’re bringing that boy on board. If Roderich’s books have taught me anything, it’s that that very necklace belongs to the current Spirit of the Wind.”  
-  
“Um, e-excuse me sir-” Feliciano looked down at who was pulling on his sleeve while he was at the stand with a wide variety of herbs. A small blonde girl a head shorter than him was staring at him with unshed tears in her eyes. “I-it’s my brother. I don’t know w-what happened but he’s not breathing!” She looked behind him with frantic eyes.  
Feliciano grabbed her hand and said, “Let’s go then! I can help you carry him to a doctor or something!” She took this chance to hold on to his hand tight and started to run. She was a fast blur in front of him, weaving in between people, running down the street to her goal.  
“Right down here mister!” she yelled behind her. She led him straight into an alley. The girl let go of his hand and turned around to face him.  
“Are you sure this is the right place? I don’t see- “Before he could finish his thought, something hard hit the back of his head. The last thing he heard was a small “I’m really sorry mister!” before he completely blacked out.  
-  
“Ludwig, I feel kind of bad about this. Before we go, do you think it would be ok with Gilbert if we spent some of the food budget and pick up some pain relievers? He’s going to have a nasty headache when he wakes up.” Elise fidgeted with her hands in front of her.  
Ludwig sighed. “You can’t spend the food budget on just anything Elise. We haven’t had a decent paying job in a while, so I know for a fact that we need every penny to go towards food. We might not be docking for a while. You’re going to need to spend your own money on whatever you want to buy for him.” He hefted the small man over his shoulder.  
Elizaveta slapped Ludwig’s shoulder, the one that did not have a passed out man over it. “Oh come on Ludwig. Once the word gets around that we have The Spirit on our ship, smuggling orders will come flooding in! This will be a complete change of luck. Plus, I hardly think that anything wrong will come out of actually treating him well.”  
Elise waved off Elizaveta. “It’s ok, I can use my own money. I’m not done with the food shopping anyway. I’ll meet you two back on the ship in 20 minutes. Take care of him, he seems really sweet. He agreed right away to help my ‘brother’,” she said, making air quotes.  
Elizaveta smirked. “It has been said that The Spirit charms the winds, which is how they control them. Maybe he can charm more than just the winds.” She nudges Ludwig. “Maybe you won’t be an eternal bachelor after all!”  
Ludwig shrugged off her hand. “Can you stop trying to set me up with someone who so much breathes in my direction? I am pretty sure that whoever this guy is, he isn’t going to be interested in the man who knocked him out.”  
He started to walk off with Elizaveta following close behind. “Listen, maybe he’s into that sort of thing! Only God knows what kinds of kinky shit you’re into.”  
“ _Please_ don’t tell me you’ve been listening to my brother again.”  
-  
“I’m concerned about Feliciano.” Mogens leaned on the counter that Emma was working on. She was busy mixing up the batter for Feliciano’s cake.  
“And water is wet, dear brother.” She didn’t even look up from her cooking.  
“I’m serious Emma. How long ago did Antonio send him to the market? That must have been a few hours ago.” He looked pointedly at the large grandfather clock across the room.  
“He probably just got caught up talking to a pretty girl or petting a cat or taking a nap someplace strange. You’ve known him for ten years now, you should know how easily he gets sidetracked. If you’re really worried, go search for him. Bring Lovi and Gabe while you’re at it. That way you’ll all get out of my hair while I bake this cake.” She looked at him with a kind smile. “If someone told me years ago that you would actually be worried about someone who isn’t me or Gabe I wouldn’t have believed them.”  
Mogens turned away from her, “I’ll go find them, then.” Emma wouldn’t be able to tell, but he was bright red as he walked out the back door.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holy SHIT i just posted this and it already has kudos? thANK YOU SO MUCH  
> anyway please dont get used to this speedy of an update i just had to write some more out before i lost steam (haha get it)

“Gil! He’s waking up!”  
“How many times do I have to tell you idiots? It’s _Captain_ Gil when we’re on the ship!”  
Feliciano slowly blinked his eyes open. His entire body felt stiff and sore. It was only a few split seconds before he realized he was tied in a sitting up position with his hands firmly behind his back. He tried to wiggle free to no avail; whoever tied these ropes was obviously an expert.  
“W-where am I?” Feliciano tried to keep the fear out of his voice and the tears at bay. He didn’t want to show too much weakness before his captors.  
A woman with long brown hair crossed her arms and glared at “Captain Gil.” Feliciano was immediately terrified of her. If just her glare could induce this much fear in him, he could only imagine what her fists could do.  
“I told you this was a terrible idea. Now the poor thing is terrified. There is no way he’s going to use his powers to help us now.” The brown haired woman sighed in an over-dramatic fashion. “Can’t we just go with my idea and sit him down in someone’s bedchambers and explain what we need kindly?”  
“Well first off, as your awesome captain I never have any bad ideas because my brain is as perfect as my handsome face. Second off, your idea is the terrible idea here. He could just… fly away or some magical bullshit! We don’t know what he’s capable of!” The captain flailed his arms wildly as he spoke. Feliciano was afraid he might hit the woman on accident, and he did not want to witness the fallout from that.  
“For once, I think I must agree with Gilbert-”  
“ **CAPTAIN GILBERT** ”  
The brown haired man who was speaking sighed, “Like I was saying, I believe _Captain_ Gilbert has the right idea. No one has seen a Spirit of the Wind in at least a century. There are simply no reliable, consistent, first-hand accounts of exactly what the Spirit is capable of. It’s best to keep him a little, ah, restrained until we know the full extent of what we’re dealing here.”  
The brown haired woman now directed her gaze at the brown haired man. “Roderich, dear, you know I value your opinion highly, but right now shut up.” She started her sentence with a sickly sweet voice that quickly turned harsh as she went on.  
“Ah, um, excuse me!” Feliciano interrupted before a fight could break out between the three people in front of him. He had already been kidnapped, being a witness to a murder would be too much for one day. “M-my name is Feliciano Vargas, not… Spirit or whatever. I really t-think you have the wrong guy! I promise I won’t tell anyone so please just drop me off back in my village so I can go home before anyone worries!” He wasn’t sure if anyone could keep up with his speed talking near the end, but the captain’s gaze became icier as his tiny speech went on.  
“Oh I am so sorry sweetie. We have been so impolite. We haven’t even introduced ourselves! My name is Elizaveta. This jackass is Gilb-“  
“ _EXCUSE ME_ ”  
“…Captain Gilbert. And he is Roderich. We are part of the crew on this ship, Dragon's Pearl.” She swept her arms across the view of the air ship, slowly floating through the air. Feliciano finally looked at his surroundings to the fullest he could while being tied down. It was a fairly average looking pirate ship, nothing new in the way of technology. The starboard propeller looked a little off and the balloon looked like it had seen better days.  
Oh no, Feliciano thought to himself, I didn’t even get kidnapped by a successful crew of pirates.  
“I really don’t have powers. I can’t do much of anything! You can ask my brother Lovino. He’s always going on and on about how I never help him with chores and then Emma makes this disappointed face and-“  
“Ok Captain Gil? Permission to at least get him standing up? Poor Feliciano here is nervous prattling and he looks close to tears.” Elizaveta gave Captain Gilbert a pitiful gaze to match Feliciano’s own.  
“But _Eliza_ what if he flies away! Or knocks us out!”  
“Captain if he can somehow outmaneuver three pirates I think we have bigger problems than just keeping a prisoner at bay.”  
Gilbert sighed loudly. “You know; I really hate it when you’re right.” He pouted off to the side and waved in Feliciano’s direction. Elizaveta knelt down and carefully untied the ropes binding him. As the last knot was undone, she stood up and carefully guided Feliciano up with her. He wobbled a little, unused to being on a moving ship.  
She slowly pet his head. “There you go. I’m so sorry about all of that Feliciano. That must have been frightening. We really don’t mean harm. We just need your blessing for a bit and we can happily return you to your village, ok?”  
“I-I don’t know what you mean.” He looked at her with the saddest puppy eyes he could muster. “I really don’t have any wind powers or whatever. I’m just as useless as I look.”  
“I understand that you don’t trust us quite yet. How about I introduce you to the rest of our crew? I think you already met our chef, Elise?” Gilbert huffed angrily and headed aft of the ship. Roderich shrugged and followed suit.  
Feliciano cocked his head to the side in confusion. “Is that girl really a pirate? She seemed so sweet”  
“Feliciano dear, did you happen to forget how we, ah, got you on board our ship?” Elizaveta looked around his head for noticeable bumps. “I didn’t think Ludwig knocked you out that hard…”  
His face soured as he remembered his injuries. “No, I can remember that part. I just don’t understand how such a nice looking girl became a pirate. N-not that you’re not nice looking! I just- “Elizaveta cut him off with boisterous laughter.  
“If I was nice looking, I wouldn’t make a very effective First Mate, now would I? Don’t worry Feliciano, you didn’t insult me. I take pride in being a scary looking pirate.” She held his hand and looked into his eyes with the kindest smile she could muster, in hopes of calming him down.  
“You’re the first mate?” Feliciano lost the fear in his face once more.  
“I’m the only one the captain will listen to, I had to be the first mate! My husband, Roderich, is our navigator. Here, lets properly introduce you to Elise.” She led him along the port side of the ship to a corridor leading to the room where a chimney was, presumably the galley. Elizaveta knocked on the door and called to whoever was inside. “Elise, the Spirit is awake and I’m introducing him to the crew.” The door carefully opened to reveal the small blonde girl in an over-sized apron, covered in some sort of light brown sauce. Elizaveta and Feliciano had matching befuddled looks  
“There was an… incident while making dinner. I have it under control. Anyway,” She wiped her hands off on a clean section of the apron to present it for Feliciano to shake. “Pleased to meet you properly and I am _so_ sorry about how I deceived you. You understand that I did it for the good of the crew, right? My name is Elise, and I am the chef of our ship! Dinner will be ready in around half an hour, but I can give you a snack if you’re hungry?” Feliciano carefully took her hand and shook it.  
“I-I think I’m still getting used to being in the air, I don’t know if food is the best option right now.” He gripped his stomach to signal his slight queasiness.  
“Oh of course! I am so sorry. I have a little ginger if you want to chew on it. It will help ease any nausea. Don’t worry, it will go away on its own as your body adjusts.” She gazed up at him with genuine concern.  
“I’ll be ok for now.” Feliciano was put at ease. When he heard pirates, he was afraid he was going to be killed immediately, but if these kind ladies were on board, it couldn’t be so bad, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I PROMISE MORE TOMATO FAMILY NEXT CHAPTER  
> i love writing romano so much  
> 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was thinking to myself today "gosh im so excited for this fic to update i cant wait to read what happens next!"  
> and then i remembered  
> im the author  
> im the one who needs to update the fic  
> god damn it

When Lovino heard Mogens’ voice call out from the house, he knew he wasn’t going to like it. It didn’t help that he was ravenously hungry since dinner kept being delayed and Gabriel was _really_ pushing all of his buttons today.  
“Oh no, do you think we should hide? Do you think he finally found the moldy tomato under your bed?” Gabriel turned towards him with a shit eating grin.  
“Would you shut the _fuck_ up about that tomato? I’ll clean it when we clean the house next week.” Lovino strongly considered hiding for a second, but with the grain crops freshly cut, there wasn’t a good place to do so. “Come on, we might as well see what the asshole wants.”  
Mogens walked up to the boys with his usual gait. Lovino swore that if he hadn’t known this guy since he was barely out of diapers he would have thought he was coming to kill him.  
“You two, we need to go to the market.” Mogens stopped right in front of them.  
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Lovino spat out, “I thought Feliciano was doing the shopping today? That lazy bastard is going to pay for this.” He crossed his arms and kicked a rock nearby his foot.  
“Lovino,” Gabriel nudged him with his elbow. ”Mogens doesn’t have any bags. I don’t think we’re going to go get food.”  
“Feliciano has been gone for hours. We need to go find him.” Mogens turned around and started walking back towards the house without waiting for another response. Gabriel and Lovino looked at each other, equally confused, before quickly catching up to him.  
“Wait wait, what do you mean? When did he leave?” Lovino grabbed his arm to stop him from walking any further.  
“Yeah, I think we need some more details before we go out on a manhunt for Feliciano. He was just buying some food for tonight, right?” Gabriel turned towards his older brother with a concerned look.  
“Tch, that bastard is probably just taking a nap somewhere, or talking to a pretty girl.” Lovino threw his arms in the air in defeat. Mogens cracked a small smile.  
“The sooner we find him, the sooner we can have dinner.” With this realization, Lovino’s face lit up and he went sprinting through the house to the market, leaving Gabriel’s loud laughter in his dust.  
-  
“Have you seen my idiot brother?” Lovino barged into the inn and went straight to the bar, not bothering with any usual pleasantries.  
“Well hello to you too, Lovino.” The blonde barkeep turned around to look at her sudden guest. “And what makes you think Feliciano would show up here today?” She leaned over the bar itself to look at him properly.  
“It’s his birthday today, so I figured he might try to come by and drink or whatever.” Lovino’s hand waved around dismissively, he was hungry and he had been searching for his missing little brother for what felt like hours. “Have you seen him or not? I still have a stupidly huge chunk of this town to cover.”  
“I actually have, now that I think about it. I think he was drinking, just not here, because some burly blond guy was carrying him off. And I think there was a lady with long brown hair following him? It was a few hours ago and I only saw them briefly outside the window, so my memory might not be accurate...” she said, trailing off at the end. Her hand thoughtfully tapped her chin as she tried to remember more details.  
“What? Are you fucking kidding me? Who was this guy? I don’t remember my asshole brother knowing any blond muscle heads…” His hand moved to his forehead in frustration. He couldn’t believe this shit.  
“Sweetie, this is a port town. New people are in and out every day. It’s hard to keep track of faces unless they're real regulars.” Her pitying smile said it all. She wasn’t entertained by this conversation anymore, and it was clear that Lovino wasn’t going to be buying any drinks.  
“Ugh, thanks for nothing then.” Lovino turned around and stomped out of the establishment.  
“You’re welcome for the info! Brat,” she yelled after him  
-  
When Lovino finally returned back to the house, his hunger had reached an unbearable point for him. Nothing was going to keep him from food at this moment, not even a missing brother.  
“Did you find out anything?” Antonio perked up with his arrival. His face seemed outwardly calm, but his messy hair told a different story. Emma was sitting on the sofa with him, gently holding his hand. Her face had enough anxiety written across it for the both of them.  
“Feliciano got drunk somewhere. Some big asshole carried him away with some woman following behind him.” Lovino waved his arm at the couple on the sofa as he tried to walk past them to the kitchen.  
Emma’s face brightened. “See my love? I told you- “  
“What did they look like.” Lovino stopped dead in his tracks. There was no calm appearance to Antonio anymore. His face was barely concealed rage. Whether the rage was directed at Feliciano or the mystery people accompanying him, however, was not inherently obvious.  
“Fuck if I know. The barkeep at The Drunken Pig said he was some blonde muscly bastard she had never seen before and some woman with long brown hair?” Lovino looked around nervously. Antonio and Emma had matching concerned faces as they slowly turned towards each other.  
"You don't think its really...?" Emma said, her voice barely above a whisper. Antonio's face spoke for him. She gathered his hands in her own and looked into his eyes. “I’ll go to the place where Feli was last seen. You’re getting a bit emotional, my dear heart. I’ll make sure it’s not… any of our friends.” She spoke the last sentence with a calm ease, as to make sure she did not give away anything that the couple did not want Lovino to hear.  
“Ok, what the fuck is going on.” Lovino crossed his arms and stamped his foot on the ground. He wanted them to know he was not going to leave this alone until he got serious, legitimate answers.  
“He’s old enough to know now Antonio. Explain to him while I’m out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY THIS ONE IS KIND OF SHORTER THAN THE OTHERS AAAAAAAAA  
> DONT START WRITING A HUGE FANFIC IN THE MIDDLE OF MIDTERMS KIDS  
> IM SLOWLY DYING BUT I HAVE AN UNDYING NEED TO GET THIS STORY OUT OF MY SYSTEM  
> TO THE PERSON WHO COMMENTED: I RAN AROUND MY HOUSE SCREAMING THAT I GOT A COMMENT. THANK YOU. THIS MADE ME WRITE. i cant thank you in a comment thread tho bc then i would go off anon haha


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tHANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR THE COMMENTS AND KUDOS THEY MAKE ME FEEL ALIVE AFTER BEING MURDERED BY MIDTERMS HAHAHAHAHA  
> im so sorry for the long wait. i got kinda super sick over the week and i died a little on the inside. its fine.   
> if youre ever wondering what i look like, just imagine that one college student crying in a corner of the library. thats me.

A loud crack disrupted their calm conversation. Elizaveta turned quickly to the port side of the ship where another airship appeared out of the clouds. She ran inside the kitchen to a tube attached to the far wall, opened the flap that was covering it, and yelled, “Captain! Attack on the port side! Get your ass out from that pouting corner and _defend your ship!_ ” She ran out of the kitchen fast and towards the bow of the ship. Elise grabbed Feliciano’s hand and ran to a hatch. Before she had a chance to open it, however, a large blond man popped out. She nodded to him before letting him out and dragging Feliciano down the ladder with her below deck.   
“Sorry about the sudden escape. All non-combatants have to go below while the ship’s engaged in battle. So we don’t get hurt, or in the way. Are you ok?” She sat them both down on some pillows stored down below.   
“To be honest I’m really scared right now who’s attacking us what are they doing that for _are we gonna die-_ “ Feliciano slowly brought his hands up to his face as he continues his incomprehensible rambling. It was obvious he wasn’t dealing with the current situation. Elise reached beneath her pillow and pulled out a small cloth bag.  
“Here, breathe into this. It’s going to help calm you down. I didn’t do too well with my first battle either. It should only last around ten minutes. My brother is the arms master and he’s really good. We haven’t lost a battle since I’ve been on board.”   
As he breathed in and out of the bag, she reached over and held his hand. “You know… I was really nervous when we first came on board too. I mean, I came on by choice, so our situations were a bit different. My brother and I grew up in Switzerland. It’s… not the best place for orphans. We had to work on this farm, since we were what they called _‘verdingkinder.’_ We lived there for as long as I can remember. I don’t ask about it much, since my brother gets this weird look in his face when I bring it up, but according to him we were taken away from our mom when I was just 2. We were supposed to be sold to different farms, but he somehow got us to be sold as a pair. I could never get him to tell me exactly _how._ When I was seven, we ran away and never looked back. It was rough for a while. Since I was so young, my brother didn’t want me running around. He was afraid the authorities were going to find us and send us back to a farm, maybe even separate us this time. We found this bookstore ran by this little old couple one day, and they let me shelve books for them. He would go out job hunting and I would sit inside this bookstore reading everything I could. Reading cookbooks was my favorite thing to do. I would sit there and imagine I was cooking and eating these dishes. I imagined how each ingredient might taste and I tried to figure out how they would all taste together. One day, when my brother came to pick me up, he sat down on the store floor with me and asked me, ‘Do you think you would be able to live on an airship?’ I thought that was the most exciting thing I had ever heard. Living up in the air with all the birds among the clouds sounded magical. It sounded so much better than in the shack we were sleeping in at the time. Apparently, he impressed some pirates with his fancy shooting skills and they wanted him on board. They weren’t too keen on having a little girl in the crew, but my older brother said I could cook. That day I met everyone on this ship and I started as the ship’s chef.”  
Elise paused her story to laugh. “Elizaveta was so excited to have a girl on board she could dress up. Roderich was nervous about having a little girl cook for him, but I think my culinary knowledge impressed him. Gilbert-excuse me, _Captain Gilbert_ -didn’t pay me much mind at first. Neither did Ludwig, which was strange because you would think he would be excited about having someone his age on board. Earning their respect took a while, to be frank. But, I wouldn’t trade this life for the world. I love being up in the sky.”  
Felicano removed his face from the bag a while back, entranced by Elise’s story. “Who’s Ludwig?”  
“Oh!” She clapped her hands in front of her face. “That’s the man we passed on the way in here. He’s Captain Gilbert’s little brother. He’s our engineer. He works hard to make sure everything works smoothly. Well, as smoothly as a ship this old can run without new parts.”  
“Yeah, your cannon sounds terrible.” To prove his point, the strange cracking noise that happened for a few seconds before it fires rang through the small safe room. “It really shouldn’t make that noise. That means the recoil mechanism has too much gunpowder buildup and can’t go back into its socket all the way.”  
Elise laughed. “You know so much! How did you learn about cannons?”   
Feliciano laughed along with her. “I read about them. I was raised by my dad’s friend Antonio and his wife Emma. They used to all work aboard this merchant ship together. My mom passed away during childbirth and my dad died when his ship got caught in a bad storm. My big brother and I were raised by our grandpa for a while, but he died of old age, so Antonio, Emma, and her brothers Mogens and Gabriel came to live with us and take care of us. Mogens reads a lot, so he brought along all these old books bout airships and stuff. I read them when I got bored, which was kind of often. We have a farm but in some seasons there’s just nothing to do.”  
“An orphan with an older brother who reads a lot, huh? Feliciano, we have so much in common!” Elise jumped up and grabbed both of his hands. “Elizaveta is a good friend, but I’m so glad that someone on this ship is so similar to me!”  
Before Feliciano could respond with equal excitement, there was two loud knocks at the hatch. A blond man with hair similar to Elise’s own opened it up.   
“Come on, the fight’s over. There’s work to do.” He looked down at them with a stern expression.  
“Oh, Feliciano, this is my older brother Vash. Vash, this is our new shipmate!”  
“Elise, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but it’s not very well lit down here. How about you introduce me to him up here?” Vash waved them up. Elise climbed up the ladder to the deck, closely followed by Feliciano.   
Vash presented his hand for Feliciano to shake. “A pleasure to meet you, Spirit of the Wind. I hope we can work together.”  
Feliciano sighed and responded, “Nice to meet you too.” He decided right then and there that he really needed to explain to these nice pirates who and what exactly he was. He didn’t want them to get their hopes up about any powers and have himself thrown overboard, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> verdingkinder are actual real people. that really happened to orphans/children from families with "poor morals." its some pretty heavy stuff, but id suggest looking up. whats the point of semi-historical fiction if it doesnt teach you a little about history?  
> do you ever start writing with one intention and the characters are like "no. this is how this is going to go." anyway italy and liech are besties now and i could not be more pleased. my babies.  
> just as a heads up i am participating in nanowrimo but i will be trying to update this fic throughout! IM NOT GIVING UP ON THIS I HAVE SO MUCH PLANNED. updates just might be a little slow bUT THEY WILL STILL COME


End file.
